Tractor shopping

[Birchum]

I could use some input on buying a tractor. It will be used for hay mostly, round bales. Plowing and such every few years.
I have my eye on a CASE IH 8370 mower as well.

Near me is a JI Case 930 CK in good shape, no 3 point.
A drive away is a International 806, fast hitch.

Im leaning towards the 930. For moving bales I do have a skidsteer. I want to get away from buying all my hay.
With these tractors in the 50 year club or so, parts availabilty comes to mind. Trying to stay away from the newer stuff, costs more and more money to fix.

Any suggestions ?

 

[dun]

Pretty hard to plow without a 3 pt

 

[Nesikep]

I'd look from a tractor from the 80's... Pre computer at least. We don't like plastic on them, which our IH684 had too much of already, a 70's tractor will have a metal instrument panel, etc which doesn't fade and crack, which is nice. With the later tractors you do get much better hydraulics, brakes, live PTO, etc which is pretty rare on a mid 1960's tractor.. we have a couple of those too.

What sort of power do you look for? I don't know what your acreage is, but something like an IH 574 is a VERY popular tractor, about 60HP, had good hydraulics and brakes, built strong, and work well for haying too. Parts for them are easy to find

 

[John SD]

Pretty hard to plow without a 3 pt

....unless you have a pull type plow.

I had a couple old Oliver pull type plows with replaceable parts Raydex moldboards. A 2 bottom and a 3 bottom.

Both with wheel driven lift which on the 3 bottom was a better system. Ran a tire chain on that wheel for extra traction.

My uncle had an old 930 standard for a hay tractor. Good cheap HP and excellent on fuel. It didn't have 3 pt either and was permanently hooked on to a Rowse D9 mower.